Wednesday, December 05, 2007

MORE GOODIES are emerging from the new Herculaneum excavation:
Rare ancient wooden throne found in Herculaneum

Tue Dec 4, 10:13 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - An ancient Roman wood and ivory throne has been unearthed at a dig in Herculaneum, Italian archaeologists said on Tuesday, hailing it as the most significant piece of wooden furniture ever discovered there.

The throne was found during an excavation in the Villa of the Papyri, the private house formerly belonging to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, built on the slope of Mount Vesuvius.

The name of the villa derives from the impressive library containing thousands of scrolls of papyrus discovered buried under meters (yards) of volcanic ash after the Vesuvius erupted on 24 August 79.

[...]
I didn't know that the new excavation at the Villa of the Papyri had already commenced, but I'm glad to hear it has. If they're finding wooden furniture, there's reason to be optimistic that more scrolls are preserved there as well.

(Via the Agade list.)

UPDATE: David Meadows comments on the "throne" and has a photo.